A scottish incident investigations company is planning significant expansion into South America, the Far East and the Asia Pacific region this year.

Kelvin Top-Set recently opened a new office in Rio de Janeiro after securing £250,000 worth of new business in the region.

Over the coming year, it also plans to strengthen its operations throughout South America, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and is in talks with a number of companies operating in Australia.

The Ayrshire firm reported £2million turnover in its first year of trading in 2008 as a stand-alone company, working as a division of Kelvin Consultants.

Sales of its Top-Set software training applications are also expected to double this year following successful rollouts by major global drilling and shipping companies.

The business is regarded as a world leader in incident examination techniques and has staff working in 32 countries across four continents. More than 70 per cent of income comes from overseas contracts.

Its Top-Set courses, consultancy and software are designed to help investigators with a step-by-step process to gather evidence, analyse data, prepare recommendations and report the findings. The methodology is used in a number of industrial sectors, including explosives and maritime industries.

General manager George Wilson said the company is focusing on growth in new terri-toriethis year.

He said: "We have been asked by a number of our clients to open up courses in the AsiaPacific region, and Australia is now looking at our Top-Set system as the industry standard.

"Top-Set has long been regarded as the industry standard in accident investigation and training in the North Sea, and as the big companies move into new territories, we enjoy growth on the back of it.

"We are looking into partnership agreements across a number of regions to help with the delivery of Top-Set training courses.

"The software system, developed through a joint venture deal, is a web-led Top-Set system which has enjoyed sales in the region of £400,000 in its first year, and we expect sales to double this year."